ICD-10: Physicians Remain Skeptical About Oct. 1 Start

Survey finds biggest obstacle is belief that there will be another delay.

For years, physicians' associations have successfully lobbied the federal government to delay the implementation of the ICD-10 diagnostic coding set.

Now, with the ICD-10 implantation date looming on Oct. 1, a survey of more than 1,100 physicians, payers, and vendors from the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange finds that the biggest obstacle to industry readiness is the belief that there will be another delay.

Jim Daley, ICD-10 Committee chair at WEDI, is urging laggards to take heed.

"Get ready. Other than the past history, there is no strong reason to believe this will be delayed again," says Daley, who is also the IT director at BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina.

"If you've been following some of the congressional hearings on this, most of the people testifying recommended moving forward," he says. "The chair of the hearing indicated there was no reason not to move forward. CMS has been saying they are moving forward. So all indications are that they are going ahead with the Oct. 1 implementation date."

Barbie Hays, coding and compliance strategist for the American Association of Family Physicians and a former family practice office manager, says physicians have created a "catch-22" with the delays. They've pushed so hard for so many delays that now they're uncertain if the implementation will hold, and so they're delaying potentially costly investments in IT upgrades to accommodate the new codes.

"With it being delayed for so many years, I kept telling my physicians in my old practice that it will take an Act of Congress to delay it again. Well guess what! That happened last year," she says.

Hays says the best chance to delay the Oct. 1 start slipped away when the House passed the massive SGR bill late last month. While the Senate could slip in a provision to delay the ICD-10 again when it takes up the bill at mid-month, Hays says there doesn't appear to be any enthusiasm for it.

"Technically it could happen again this year, but the normal time frame for that has come and gone," she says. "The amendment attached to the SGR was voted down. It's going through. At this point it would need a presidential mandate for this to stop and I don't think that is going to happen."

Daley says anyone behind the curve on ICD-10 implementation could see their operations in disarray if they don't get up to speed. He says it's time to end the excuses.

"I hear a lot of people are concerned about if this person is ready or that person is ready. First and foremost, you need to take care of what you are doing in-house," he says. "If you aren't ready it doesn't much matter what the readiness is of the other parties. That is really key. Don't delay. If you finish early, that isn't a problem. If you don't finish on time, that is a big problem."

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